Stamford police swarm school after accidental intruder alarms

Post-Newtown alert system gets an unintentional test

Updated 10:34 pm, Tuesday, May 13, 2014

STAMFORD -- Twice on Tuesday, first responders thundered to Stillmeadow Elementary School after a new emergency alert system generated false alarms.

About the time parents were arriving to pick up students in the afternoon, at least 40 police officers swarmed around the school at 800 Stillwater Road. The Stamford Fire & Rescue Department sent an engine with emergency medical technicians as well, and the Turn of River department was put on alert. Then, at 6:11, the alarm was tripped again, with police and fire personnel again heading to the school, though this time, it appeared only a softball team practicing on the school field was there to witness the response.

Assistant Stamford Police Chief James Matheny said these were the first live calls generated by the new alarm system, though it has been through intentional testing.

Each of Stamford's grade schools are being equipped with Situational Awareness Response Assistant alarms, which provide staff members with a pendant panic button that can generate a direct call to police. About half the 12 elementary schools have them, and Stillmeadow's installation was completed within the last month. The school district decided to install the alarms after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown as one item in a plan to beef up security.

"There are very strict guidelines for its use, and that's why we respond the way we do," Matheny said. "We should be getting very few of these (alarms)."

Matheny said at least 40 police officers, including some who were on their way in to work, administrative staff from headquarters and officers nearby doing extra duty work, responded to the school. All city ambulances and medics were also ordered to the school.

He said that locked doors at the school briefly kept police from entering, but they were allowed in by school staff shortly after their arrival.

"From the police perspective, the response was exactly what it should have been. Officers entering the building did the search like they have been trained to do. We were pleased with the response, and dispatch was right on top of it," Matheny said.

Although the alarm company indicates the first incident was set off by a pendant worn around a staff member, an investigation is underway to determine what happened, Matheny said.

Winifred Hamilton, Stamford schools superintendent, said the district's security staff will be working with police to determine what triggered the false alarm.

"I won't speculate on the exact cause," she said.

She said she expected to have more information Wednesday, as the alarm company should be able to track which one was activated. As part of the system, Hamilton was also automatically notified when the alarm sounded.

The system is designed to get the fastest response possible to a shooter or other major emergency. The school goes into lockdown when it is triggered.

Installing the system has proved challenging due to the age of the schools' electrical and intercom systems, many of which had to be upgraded.

Hamilton said the alarms, which have been at Newfield for a year, have never gone off accidentally.

"We are happy it was a false alarm," she said. "It's a good endorsement of police response time."

"To me, it was a little scary for the students," she said. "The fact is the buttons work. The response time was incredible."

She also praised the Stillmeadow administrators for getting information out to parents as quickly as possible. Within 20 minutes of the event, police had determined it was a false alarm, and Stillmeadow sent out an alert telling parents.

The parent-faculty group also did its job, providing information through its own Yahoo! email group, Tasik said. As a precaution, the school will have psychologists available to students who might have been upset by the incident.

"I think it was handled well," Tasik said, and so did her daughter, Samantha, age 6.

"I did talk to my daughter who is a kindergartner," Tasik said. "She told me, `Mommy, the emergency thing went off at school. We went into lockdown, but it was a false alarm. We were all OK.' "